Sliding: Newcastle are at great risk of relegation following a poor run of form

Here’s a taste of the thoughts of the two men as they plot their escape route with wins which will take them to 40 points and put Wigan Athletic out of sight.

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has had open and frank meetings with his players in the wake of their 6-0 home defeat to Liverpool, the club’s worst for 88 years.

He has denied claims of a rift in the Toon camp, and claims that the new French players in particular were struggling to communicate with team-mates.

The former West Ham boss returns to Upton Park tomorrow. 'Not under the circumstances I’d like,' he admitted, as he contemplates a meeting with former Toon favourites Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan.

Pardew said: 'You have to discuss what the problems were against Liverpool, make sure that you give logical reasons to why you think that happened and what you need to put right.

Write caption here

'The main balance we need to get is commitment on the pitch and an organisation to our game, which we didn’t have against Liverpool. One thing I do know about this time of year is the form book goes out the window. We have got to throw the form book out of the window because if you looked at that you’d say we’re struggling.

'But we’ve got good players, focused players and we go to West Ham looking for a win.

'Some of the criticism is completely unfair. It Is unfair on the French players in my opinion. We bought three or four players in the January window, we’ve had to play them because of injuries mainly. Massaido Haidara, for example, wasn’t really expected to play this year but we’ve had injuries.

'Massaido showed inexperience on Saturday, bless his heart. It was nothing more - it wasn’t lack of fight or desire or not being good enough. He just hasn’t had the time and a lot of our season has been like that - playing players we weren’t expecting to play in crucial games, and in crucial positions we found ourselves in.

'The one thing I am particularly aggrieved about this week is this word ‘rift’ and that the French players are not accepted or are not accepting us. It’s complete rubbish and it’s unfair. It’s unfair on that group who have done everything they possibly can. They’re quite a young group, most of them. I think they’ve been quite hurt by it and it’s important they don’t take that onto the pitch.

Rift? Reports have suggested Newcastle's influential foreign contingent are unhappy at the club

'I have to be honest, I would like to have levels of communication greater than they are in terms of ‘Is our message and the message of my staff getting through 100 per cent’? We hope it is and hopefully at West Ham it will. We’ve used different forms and will continue to change it if we feel it’s necessary.

'Yohan Cabaye made a point to me this week. He said that when he arrived we didn’t have an interpreter and therefore he learned English that bit quicker and we’ve used an interpreter because we’ve got so many new guys who don’t understand the language. It’s like trying to get that balance right of actually forcing them to learn the language - but we do need to understand what their problem is.’

For the second week running, Sunderland must wait until Monday night for their clash at home to Stoke City.

Like Pardew, head coach Paolo Di Canio opened the floor for discussions with players who had pulled off significant wins over Newcastle and Everton to guide them away from trouble.

But the Italian knows Sunderland’s work is far from complete.

Anger? Paolo Di Canio has called on his players to develop an edge

Di Canio said: 'You can see that we felt very strongly about what happened at Villa. It’s clear also they have a very high determination to get a result and not fall into the trap again. If we take the best from the humiliation it was worth it to pay the price.

'Stoke play direct football. They don’t play tippy-tappy. They play straight to front and try to damage. They are a physical and strong team and have strong presence, use long throw-ins, bring big tall fellas in the box, they’re dangerous. They’re predictable but that doesn’t make it easy.

'We lost badly, so I wanted to test them. You don’t just learn about people from what they do on the field, you also learn things from their opinions. This is a very genuine group, one of the best groups I have seen. It’s a genuine group, they don’t argue with each other. In fact, sometimes, they are even too genuine. I don’t want bad fellas, but sometimes they are too good.

'I wanted to test them, so I spoke to them all – young fella, adult fella, player with big background, player with smaller background, foreign players who maybe don’t speak a lot. I told them to tell me what they think. They had to do that in front of their team-mates. It doesn’t mean you point the finger at other people, but you have to give your opinion. There was a common ground there. Everybody had the same idea and opinion.

'They are very genuine, but very shy. Before what happened to Sessegnon, this team had not had one red card. Now, I don’t want to see my players getting red cards, but even in terms of yellow cards, this isn’t a team that has suffered much in that respect. Reading and QPR are relegated, but they have two of the best records in the league in terms of getting yellow cards. They have had very few.

Dismissed: Stephane Sessegnon was sent off in the 6-1 defeat at Aston Villa

'I’m not saying you have to get yellow cards, but maybe we are too nice. I’m not saying we have to have the devil in us because people will say, ‘Di Canio wants a killer in his team’. But while this a very genuine group, we are sometimes too clean. We need to have a bit more of an edge.

'I don’t say I’m happy that we lost 6-1, but in the long run, what happened could be good for the development of the team. If we’d lost 2-1 with exactly the same performance, we would have even more problems in my opinion. The players might have been saying, "We only lost 2-1". I would have said, "Yes, but they created ten chances". If they had missed their chances, the performance would still have stayed exactly the same.

'On Tuesday, I was happy because the players’ opinion was very sad and angry inside. There was a very deep analysis and a common view. We were stupid because we probably thought we were up after the weekend results. I’m not worried because in the next three games we are going to perform in the way we know we have to.'

Too casual? Di Canio believes his side may prematurely have thought they were safe

'I don’t want to talk about my colleague’s opinion because we came from two different moments. I don’t know Newcastle, he can speak for them, I can speak for my players.

'We came from two fantastic results that had not happened since November. I don’t know how many people would have signed for the two performances against Newcastle and Everton, but I think most of them would, although that has to stop now.

'We came from a different run. It is clear that our poison was too much confidence. We thought "now we are the best". But that is not the case.'